Everything seems to happen at pace in the life of pop sensation Skott.
Just a year ago she had no solo career to speak of, spending evenings singing from the corners of Stockholm’s jazz clubs. Initially she was signed as a songwriter, but soon realised that she wasn’t willing to part with her songs. “I wanted to tell the artist exactly what to do and have the final word!” she explains, “At first I was in denial and didn’t think being on stage was something for me. But I was just scared. I subconsciously found my way to the stage on purpose because that is what I really wanted to do.”
The behemothic pop of recent singles ‘Wolf’ and ‘Glitter & Gloss’ has won her the patronage of such industry titans as Lorde and Katy Perry, but there’s also something subtly cinematic woven into her music. She believes her knack for writing memorable melodies came from the limitation of learning violin in a piano-less home: “There were no chords to accompany me, so the melodies had to be really strong to be interesting. Especially as I wasn’t very good!”
Growing up in a commune where the entire village would occasionally spend day and night together fiddling in the woods (her words, not ours) also encouraged her to perform for her peers and gain confidence.
Yet there’s another, more unexpected influence on Skott’s writing. “When I was a teenager I got really into video game music,” she tells Clash. “My first MP3 player was full of soundtracks to games like Final Fantasy and Zelda.” Before too long a few of her friends started coding small computer games and asking her to write the theme music. “That was actually when I knew that I wanted to write music in the future,” she admits, “I started to dream about making game and even film music. When I retire that’s still what I’d like to do.”
Speculating about retirement pre-debut album might seem a little premature, but, given that her world is currently moving at 100mph, a little foresight seems entirely justified.
WHERE: The wild woods of Sweden
WHAT: Catchier-than-a-cold Scandinavian pop with a cinematic undercurrent
GET 3 SONGS: ‘Wolf’, ‘Lack Of Emotion’, ‘Glitter And Gloss’
FACT: That intriguing print on her hand is actually her family crest. She made it into a stamp at her latest London show so the whole audience could get it temporarily tattooed on their wrists.
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Words: Josh Gray
Photography: Sophie Mayanne
Fashion: Vincent Pons
